What are the top 5 US cities with the highest crime rates and their mayors' party affiliations?

1. Which cities commonly appear at the top — and why rankings disagree

Multiple outlets and compilations identify a repeating group of high‑crime cities but disagree on ranking and metric. The Hill and FBI‑based reporting highlighted Memphis as having the highest violent‑crime rate in recent data, with Detroit, Baltimore and others also in top spots ^[1]. Commercial or niche lists (Worldstar, ArcadianAI, MIRA Safety) similarly flag Detroit, St. Louis, Memphis and Baltimore among the worst ^{[2] [5] [6]}. Differences arise because some lists use FBI UCR totals, some use violent crime per 100,000, some use homicide rates alone, and some use perception surveys like Numbeo — producing different orders ^{[7] [8] [9]}.

2. Example “top 5” drawn from multiple recent reports

Synthesizing the most‑cited names across sources yields a frequently recurring top‑five: Memphis, Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore and New Orleans. The Hill cites Memphis as the city with the highest violent‑crime rate and lists other high‑crime cities in its top‑10 ^[1]. Worldstar and other 2025 lists put Detroit, St. Louis, Memphis and Baltimore near the top as well ^{[2] [6]}. Note: specific numeric ranks and rates differ by dataset and year ^{[1] [2]}.

3. Mayoral party affiliations — what the sources say

Ballotpedia maintains partisan affiliation data for large‑city mayors: as of November 2025, 66 of the 100 largest cities’ mayors are Democrats and 23 are Republicans, with a handful of Libertarian, independent or nonpartisan mayors ^[4]. Ballotpedia’s lists and election pages allow checking a given city’s mayoral affiliation ^[10]. Available sources do not provide a single citation that lists each of the five named high‑crime cities with their current mayors’ parties in one place; Ballotpedia can be used to verify each mayor individually ^[10].

4. Does mayoral party explain crime differences? — conflicting evidence

Major academic work cited in these sources concludes mayoral party affiliation has no detectable effect on crime, police staffing, arrests or police spending across hundreds of cities and decades (Science Advances / PMC summary) ^{[11] [12]}. That research suggests structural and socioeconomic factors — not simply the party label of a mayor — drive crime trends. Political narratives often emphasize partisan control of cities, but the peer‑reviewed finding warns against attributing cross‑city crime differences primarily to mayoral party ^[11].

5. Caveats and data limitations journalists (and readers) should note

Authors and authorities caution against simplistic city rankings: the FBI itself and criminology groups warn that rankings can mislead because they don’t account for reporting differences, jurisdictional boundaries, or socioeconomic context; some datasets omit major cities when data aren’t reported ^{[13] [14]}. Many commercial lists use different methodologies (perception surveys, subsets of cities, or mid‑year snapshots), so a “top‑5” is sensitive to definitions and timing ^{[7] [8]}.

6. How to verify the current mayoral affiliation for a specific city

For up‑to‑date mayoral party data, Ballotpedia’s lists of current mayors and their party affiliations for the top 100 cities are the centralized, citable source cited in reporting ^{[10] [4]}. For crime rates, consult primary datasets like the FBI UCR/NCVS releases or vetted research groups (Council on Criminal Justice) for consistent methodology; the Council provides city‑level analyses but covers select cities and time windows ^{[14] [15]}.

Final note: reporters and readers should treat “most dangerous city” lists as dependent on metric and scope; sources repeatedly name Memphis, Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore and New Orleans among high‑crime cities in 2024–2025 reporting, but there is no single, universally accepted ranked list that pairs those exact five with each mayor’s party in one authoritative table in the available sources ^{[1] [2] [4]}.